Allen West: Gun Control Is 'Your Index Finger' (VIDEO)

Former Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) said gun control comes down to the finger you pull the trigger with, calling the larger discussion on gun violence part of a "political agenda."

"This is your gun control, this finger right here -- your index finger," West said in an interview with Newsmax TV. "Nothing happens with that gun until you put that finger into the trigger well and you pull it. So my concern is that we’re not talking about the real issue, we’re talking about a political agenda."

West's comments come in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, where 20 first-graders and several teachers were killed. West said "we should start first and foremost" with mental health issues rather than gun control, claiming Adam Lanza, the Sandy Hook shooter, had "parental problems."

This isn't the first time West has argued against the gun control debate. At a campaign stop in 2010, West suggested the Holocaust was to blame for gun control.

"In 1930, there was a gentleman in Germany who took away private gun ownership and you know what happened to that population," West said. "You must be well informed and well armed, because this government we have right now is a tyrannical government."

On Tuesday, Vice President Joe Biden will issue a sweeping series of recommendations on gun policy. HuffPost's Sam Stein reported earlier:

Multiple sources close to the talks tell The Huffington Post that the vice president will make universal background checks for all gun purchases the "top priority" of his suggestions. The idea has broad support among politicians in the wake of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, as well as backing from some traditionally pro-gun rights voices. The clearest sign that background checks will be the centerpiece of the Biden recommendations, however, is that a number of gun control advocacy groups have also deemed it such, as opposed to focusing their efforts on higher-profile measures, such as those that would limit the types of guns available for purchase.

That said, those measures will also likely end up in Biden's set of recommendations as well, according to an administration official. The White House pushed back Friday morning on reports that it is shying away from including some form of an assault weapons ban in its final legislative push out of concern that it was too heavy a lift through Congress.

"I wish to God she had had an m-4 in her office, locked up so when she heard gunfire, she pulls it out ... and takes him out and takes his head off before he can kill those precious kids," Gohmert said of slain principal Dawn Hochsprung on <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/16/louie-gohmert-guns_n_2311379.html"><em>Fox News Sunday</em></a>. He argued that shooters often choose schools because they know people will be unarmed.